Abstract: A laser system for operation at elevated temperatures with minimal cooling requirements. The laser system comprises a laser media having first and second optical ends and an input port. The laser system further comprises at least one high-temperature laser diode which optically communicates with the laser media and is operative to generate a source beam of light which is transmitted into the input port of the laser media. Optically communicating with the first optical end of the laser media is at least one reflector, while optically communicating with the second optical end of the laser media is at least one optical coupler. The laser media, the reflector and the optical coupler are configured to form a laser resonator operative to generate a laser beam which is transmitted through the optical coupler.

Abstract: An eye-safe laser operating at high efficiency, pulse repetition rate and power output is described. The laser comprises a diode-array pumped laser having a pumping wavelength range which produces a polarized output beam. The output beam passes through a nonlinear tunable parametric converter crystal having X, Y, and Z principal axes. Noncritical phase matching is produced in said laser by phase matching for a beam propagation parallel to a principal axis which results in a high efficiency of laser operation. The nonlinear tunable parametric converter crystal converts the wavelength of an otherwise unsafe laser beam output to one that is harmlessly absorbed by the human eye.

Abstract: A method and system for extraction of visible optical energy from gas lasers having simultaneous ultraviolet and visible transitions. In this disclosed method, stimulated emission on the UV transition of rare-gas halide molecules is converted to a wavelength which coincides with the wavelength of the visible transition using a dye laser cell mounted in a common optical cavity with the visible laser. Excitation of the rare-gas halide laser produces high gain UV and low gain visible transitions. The UV is focused into a visible dye cell, and stimulated emission occurs in the dye cell which is contained in an optical cavity also containing the gas laser. The stimulated emission of the dye cell is amplified by the discharge-pumped gas laser medium. Since the gain of the dye laser is very high, the arrangement allows laser emission at the visible wavelength to build-up very rapidly during the gas laser excitation discharge pulse. Laser emission has been produced over a waveguide bandwidth between 460 and 510 nm.

Abstract: An improved electric-discharge-excited mercury halide dissociation laser operable on the (B-X) transitions in HgCl, HgBr and HgI at 558, 502 and 443 nm respectively. The laser discharge cell is elongated and made from temperature-resistant silicon-glass laminate or any other suitable material and includes separate ceramic crucibles for containing mercuric dihalide crystals. A pair of electrodes, each having external terminals, extend along the linear axis of the cell in parallel relationship with the linear axis and each other. Ultraviolet discharge means is also provided for preionizing a buffer gas of helium to which nitrogen has been added. The improvement comprises the addition of about 10% nitrogen to the buffer gas of helium which is admitted to the laser cell prior to excitation. The addition of nitrogen may act to selectively remove the terminal levels of the mercury halide laser transitions, thereby permitting more efficient extraction of the optical energy from the laser media.

Abstract: A laser cavity containing a mixture of nitrogen, N.sub.2, and mercury, Hg, gas is optically pumped by a lamp containing mercury to produce a laser output of 546.1 nm. The upper laser level is excited through optical pumping by a resonance lamp while the lower level which is a low lying metastable state is depopulated by collisional quenching.